When was mash potato invented

Turn the burner on very low and get all or most of the water to evaporate. At the same time, you can add the cream and butter together in a separate pan and heat on low just enough to melt the butter. When all the water is evaporated from the potatoes, mash them with a hand masher. Now is the time to get creative. Try adding cheese, sour cream, cream cheese, bacon, onion, peppers, garlic, or fresh herbs. Collecting potato mashers Potato mashers make a great first collection for anyone, but especially for kids.

On antiquing jaunts, my two girls used to look for potato mashers while I was checking out the big-ticket items. There are many shapes and different handle materials and they all old or new can make an interesting display. Hang them on the wall or just put them masher-side-up in a country crock on your counter.

Diana Bulls is an ongoing contributor to our Hometown History section, having collected vintage kitchen utensils for over 40 years; she is also actively involved with the Reedley Historical Society.

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They were most likely domesticated in the Andes mountains of Peru and northwest Bolivia, where they were being used for food at least as far back as BCE. These early potatoes were very different from the potatoes we know today. They came in a variety of shapes and sizes and had a bitter taste that no amount of cooking could get rid of.

They were also slightly poisonous. To combat this toxicity, wild relatives of the llama would lick clay before eating them. The toxins in the potatoes would stick to the clay particles, allowing the animals to consume them safely. People in the Andes noticed this and started dunking their potatoes in a mixture of clay and water—not the most appetizing gravy, perhaps, but an ingenious solution to their potato problem.

Even today, when selective breeding has made most potato varieties safe to eat, some poisonous varieties can still be bought in Andean markets, where they're sold alongside digestion-aiding clay dust. By the time Spanish explorers brought the first potatoes to Europe from South America in the 16th century, they had been bred into a fully edible plant.

It took them a while to catch on overseas, though. Modern potato historians debate these points, though. It may have just been a horticultural problem. The South American climates potatoes thrived in were unlike those found in Europe, especially in terms of hours of daylight in a day. In Europe, potatoes grew leaves and flowers, which botanists readily studied, but the tubers they produced remained small even after months of growing. This particular problem began to be remedied when the Spanish started growing potatoes on the Canary Islands, which functioned as a sort of middle ground between equatorial South America and more northerly European climes.

They were becoming increasingly common, but not without controversy. As time went on, concerns about potatoes causing leprosy severely damaged their reputation. A handful of potato advocates, including Parmentier, were able to turn the potato's image around. Yet, potatoes initially failed to take off in Europe. In France, potatoes were so unappetizing that the French government passed a law banning them as a food source for humans in Instead, potatoes were reserved for animal feed in France, while some believed that they actually caused leprosy.

Ironically, it was a Frenchman who was one of the first people to discover one of the tastiest variations of the potato, a dish that would become increasingly popular over the course of three centuries, namely, mashed potatoes. Forced to eat potatoes or starve to death Parmentier discovered that potatoes were not the leprosy-inducing animal feed that the French people believed them to be.

The imprisoned pharmacist actually discovered that potatoes were a delicious food source and began experimenting with different variations. Following his release from prison, Parmntier returned to France and began to tell his countrymen about the wonders of the potato. He demonstrated different ways to cook them, including mashing them, and began to call on the French government to lift the ban. Parmentier began a series of publicity stunts in his campaign to lift the ban on potatoes, hosting high profile dinners where different variations of the potato, including mashed potatoes, featured prominently.

The French government was eventually forced to lift its ban on potatoes in Eventually, farmers in Europe found potatoes easier to grow and cultivate than other staple crops, such as wheat and oats.

More importantly, it became known that potatoes contained most of the vitamins needed for sustenance, and they could provide for nearly ten people for each acre of land cultivated. By the end of the 18th century in much of Europe potatoes had become what they were in the Andes, a staple. In the s a major outbreak of potato blight, a plant disease, swept through Europe, wiping out the potato crop in many countries.

By this time the Irish working class lived largely on potatoes and when the blight reached Ireland, their main food staple disappeared. This famine left many poverty stricken families with no choice but to struggle to survive or migrate out of Ireland. Even though the history of the potato is well documented, the origin of mashed potatoes is a little cloudier.

Some food historians say the Incas mashed their potatoes, but not in the way we think of them today. The inventor of mash potatos as we know and love them today was Hannah Glasse. Glasse was the Julia Child of her time and was very popular in Britain and its colonies. And, of course, we cannot forget Parmentier in France. Regardless of the origin of mashed potatoes, a solid understanding of how to perfect this beloved side dish is a great way to impress family and friends at a potluck dinner and to accompany our sublime meatloaf recipe.

Modern mashed potatoes, which incorporate butter, cream, and other dairy products, first appeared in print in the midth century cookbook, The Art of Cookery , by Hannah Glasse.